Products made from a fibrous web are used for a variety of purposes. For example, paper towels, facial tissues, toilet tissues, napkins, and the like are in constant use in modern industrialized societies. The large demand for such paper products has created a demand for improved versions of the products. If the paper products such as paper towels, facial tissues, napkins, toilet tissues, mop heads, and the like are to perform their intended tasks and to find wide acceptance, they must possess certain physical characteristics.
Among the more important of these characteristics are strength, softness, absorbency, and cleaning ability. Strength is the ability of a paper web to retain its physical integrity during use. Softness is the pleasing tactile sensation consumers perceive when they use the paper for its intended purposes. Absorbency is the characteristic of the paper that allows the paper to take up and retain fluids, particularly water and aqueous solutions and suspensions. Important not only is the absolute quantity of fluid a given amount of paper will hold, but also the rate at which the paper will absorb the fluid. Cleaning ability refers to a fibrous structures' capacity to remove and/or retain soil, dirt, or body fluids from a surface, such as a kitchen counter, or body part, such as the face or hands of a user.
Through-air drying papermaking belts comprising a reinforcing element and a resinous framework, and/or fibrous webs made using these belts are known. The resinous framework may be continuous or semi-continuous. The resinous framework extends outwardly from the reinforcing element to form a web-side of the belt (i. e., the surface upon which the web is disposed during a papermaking process), a backside opposite to the web-side, and deflection conduits extending therebetween. Sometimes called deflection members, the reinforcing element is always a woven (or felt) substrate in which woven filaments are oriented in either the machine direction (MD) or cross machine direction (CD) in a relatively closely spaced woven pattern.
An improvement on deflection members is disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Provisional Application 62/155,517, entitled Unitary Deflection Member for Making Fibrous Structures Having Increased Surface Area and Process for Making Same, filed by Manifold et al. on May 1, 2015. The reinforcing member of Manifold et al. can mimic a woven substrate in which filaments are oriented in either the machine direction (MD) or cross machine direction (CD) in a relatively closely spaced woven pattern.
However, there remains an unmet need for a papermaking surface, including the type described as deflection members, having a three-dimensional topography that permits greater degrees of freedom with respect to open area, air permeability, strength, and paper structures.
Additionally, there is an unmet need for a method for making a papermaking surface, including the type described as deflection members, having a three-dimensional topography that permits greater degrees of freedom with respect to open area, air permeability, strength, and paper structures.